A new movement called Vitalism is trying to turn radical ideas about lifespan extension into a coherent philosophy and political force. Founded by Adam Gries and Nathan Cheng, Vitalism is built around the belief that death is humanity’s “core problem,” and some of its adherents argue that death is morally wrong for everyone. The movement is not limited to scientific advances to slow or reverse aging, but also aims to persuade influential people, change laws and policies, and expand access to experimental drugs in pursuit of significantly longer lives.
The reporter has tracked this community since 2022, following longevity enthusiasts from a pop-up city called Zuzalu in Montenegro, where Vitalism was officially launched, to hubs in Switzerland, Honduras, and a compound in Berkeley, California. Along the way, the scene has mixed serious longevity research with surreal and sometimes unsettling personal experiments and beliefs. People have described biohacking mishaps that ended with smoking legs, multi-partner relationships preserved via cryopreservation and hoped-for reanimation, and explicit support for eugenic embryo selection based on projected lifespan. Others have demonstrated their commitment by drawing blood to test biological age in upscale restaurants, floated plans to preserve consciousness for future machine resurrection, or discussed injecting men’s penises with multiple doses of an experimental gene therapy to treat erectile dysfunction as part of a broader quest for “radical longevity.”
The movement’s ambitions now reach far beyond social media wellness culture. The reporter’s journey included Washington, DC, where supporters of lifespan extension have presented their case directly to politicians, including Mehmet Oz, who currently leads the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Longevity clinics are proliferating, and documentaries about living significantly longer or even forever are becoming more common. Meanwhile, high-level political support is emerging: the longevity community celebrated when longtime supporter Jim O’Neill became deputy secretary of health and human services, and other figures in the Trump administration have spoken publicly about longevity, leading Gries to call it the most pro-longevity administration in American history. The newly established ARPA-H, created in 2022 under Joe Biden’s presidency to fund “breakthrough” biomedical research, appears to be focusing more heavily on longevity under its new director, Alicia Jackson, who previously founded women’s health company Evernow. Jackson said many promising technologies converge on the question “Could we extend life years?” and described “incredible support” from the top of the Department of Health and Human Services, implicitly including O’Neill. Together, these developments suggest that the once-fringe world of hardcore lifespan extension is gaining real influence in health policy and federal research agendas, even as it retains its often strange and intensely personal edge.
